WRC: Tanak drops out from lead to hand Ogier Wales Rally GB chance

Ott Tanak has seen his hopes of a fourth consecutive World Rally Championship win shattered by stopping on SS16 with a mechanical issue to hand Sebastien Ogier an opportunity to kick-start his title charge.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver had a comfortable lead over Ogier of 41.9s at the start of SS16, Sweet Lamb 2, but ground to a halt with a suspected broken sump guard and broken radiator. Toyota confirmed it wouldn’t know the full cause of the breakdown until assessing the car at the team base.

With Tanak out, Ogier looked to take full advantage by defending his unexpected lead at Wales Rally GB from Toyota pair Jari-Matti Latvala and Esapekka Lappi.

Latvala trails Ogier by 4.4s at the end of Saturday’s second loop looking to help his teammate’s title charge by taking points off Ogier, while Lappi also remains in contention 7.4s off teammate Latvala.

Craig Breen has been promoted to fourth just 1.7s off Lappi in the lead Citroen ahead of teammate Mads Ostberg. Andreas Mikkelsen has moved up to sixth as the leading Hyundai in front of teammates Hayden Paddon and WRC championship leader Thierry Neuville following his brief off on Saturday morning.

Kalle Rovanpera continues to lead the WRC2 class for Skoda ahead of Pontus Tidemand with both drivers holding the final top ten spots.